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The Department of iPhone Security

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:03:00 +0000

A South Florida TV news station is reporting that over the last few months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been raiding local smartphone repair shops and seizing counterfeit Apple parts. As many as 25 shops have been raided and "between $250,000 and $300,000 in counterfeit Apple parts" have been confiscated. In the case of at least one of the raids, the owner of a repair shop claimed that the ICE agents were accompanied by Apple representatives.

"It's a wide investigation that is multi-state. We are looking at whole industry spectrum of repair shops that are using substandard products," said Gerard O'Neill, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Miami Field Office for Homeland Security.

O'Neill says it's a public safety issue and that is how Homeland Security is involved.

He says consumers have be hurt by overheating phones that were repaired using counterfeit parts.

"There are trademark and licensing violations as well," he added.

According to Abel Abella, the proprietor of one of the raided repair shops, "20 ICE agents and two people from Apple came to his store."

DHS had policy of daily spying on activists

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:38:00 +0000

Department of Homeland Security documents obtained recently by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund reveal that the agency, founded for combating terrorism, has a policy of spying daily on peaceful activists and protesters in the United States.

The heavily redacted 252 pages of documents add to findings already made by the PCJF about coordination and intelligence monitoring by the DHS, the FBI, the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies and the private sector of Occupy and related protests.

"Taken together, the two sets of documents paint a disturbing picture of federal law enforcement agencies using their vast power in a systematic effort to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations. The federal agencies’ actions were not because Occupy represented a 'terrorist threat' or a 'criminal threat' but rather because it posed a significant grassroots political challenge to the status quo,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF.

DHS to review solitary confinement of immigrants

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:15:00 +0000

As Salon noted Monday, reports emerged this week that hundreds of unauthorized immigrants detained in mass civil detention centers are held in solitary confinement. The New York Times reported that on any given day in the 50 vast ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers, around 300 people are held in solitary.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded to the revelations Tuesday and said that detention policies would be reviewed. Napolitano also expressed some skepticism about the Times' report. Via HuffPo:

"I was not wild about the story," she said at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "But I think solitary confinement should be the exception, not the rule. ... So I've asked ICE to go back and give me information on the specific cases that were referenced, when those occurred, [whether] the 'facts' -- 'facts,' I say that in quotes -- that were reported were accurate, and then looking at all of our policies with respect to solitary."

Government uses video games to recruit teen hackers

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:30:00 +0000

It's no news that the U.S. government is targeting young hackers -- but their interest is not just prosecution. As the New York Times noted Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security -- following in the footsteps of the National Security Agency -- is using computer game competitions to scout high-school hackers as possible recruits to their cyberdefense ranks.

The Times noted that , "the idea of using competitions came, in part, from China, where the People’s Liberation Army runs challenges every spring to identify its next generation of digital warriors." This is just another arena in which the cat-and-mouse cyberwar between the U.S. and China (usually with the U.S. intelligence community at the forefront) is taking shape.

Via the Times:

DHS released over 2,000 immigrants

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:59:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department released from its jails more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation in recent weeks due to looming budget cuts and planned to release 3,000 more during March, the Associated Press has learned.

The newly disclosed figures, cited in internal budget documents reviewed by the AP, are significantly higher than the "few hundred" illegal immigrants the Obama administration acknowledged this week had been released under the budget-savings process.

The government documents show that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement released roughly 1,000 illegal immigrants from its jails around the U.S. each week since at least Feb. 15. The agency's field offices have reported more than 2,000 immigrants released before intense criticism this week led to a temporary shutdown of the plan, according to the documents.

The states where immigrants were released include Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas.

The White House has said it was not consulted about the releases, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has acknowledged they occurred in a manner she regrets. White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday said the government had released "a few hundred" of the roughly 30,000 illegal immigrants held in federal detention pending deportation proceedings. Carney said the immigrants released were "low-risk, noncriminal detainees," and the decision was made by career ICE officials.

Immigrant detainees released to save money

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:59:00 +0000

The Department of Homeland Security has released hundreds of illegal immigrants from detention centers around the country in what the New York Times reported as "a highly unusual effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials plan to release up to 10,000 detainees -- all held for nonviolent offenses related to immigration violation. The detainees are being freed on supervised release while their cases continue in court, officials said.

The announcement provoked angry backlash from Republicans and conservative commentators. According to the Times, Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-Va) said, "It’s abhorrent that President Obama is releasing criminals into our communities to promote his political agenda on sequestration.” Meanwhile Arizona's Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told Fox News the move was "politically motivated -- and dangerous."

Obama deportation toll on track to pass 2 million

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:33:00 +0000

At current rates, deportations enforced under the Obama presidency are set to hit 2 million by 2014, according to a new report from the University of California-Merced. Findings highlight that if current deportation rates continue, nearly as many people will have been deported under this administration as during the entirety of the years between 1892 and 1997. These are striking statistics to consider while Congress debates the president's commitment to immigration enforcement.

The report notes that under Obama, the deportation of convicted criminals has been a focus and a point of pride for the administration. However, as immigrant justice advocates have often stressed, the report points out that "many of these criminal deportees are deported after a minor criminal conviction":